It isn’t that girls are showing up at proms in Oshkosh bib overalls and Muck Boots. Still, if you wish to express your green, eco-friendly, composting, tree-hugging self, perhaps there's room for gardening fashion in your mud room.

Gardening fashion? It sounds like an bad oxymoron. But it’s happening. All clothing is an expression, and these duds tell your earth-friendly story vividly, no need for Al Gore.

You’re more likely to see these at the Dairy Shed than a downtown restaurant, but trends change fast. Gardening clothes for women are hitting their social media stride in the 2013 growing season. New designs are cropping up like dandelions.

Designers are taking two directions here. There always have been fashions that celebrate nature and gardening, such as the formal Desigual Garden T-Shirts at $22.61, modeled on Rikki Low Rise Crop jeans. These are sophisticated, high-style looks for women who love the image but hire out the work.

The newcomer is garden practical, down-in-the-dirt utility wearables that happen to be a man-magnet, just in case.

Energy for the garden-fashion trend is coming from unlikely places, including Home and Garden TV and dozens of garden-fashion blogs. HG’s “Garden to Runway” series is a self-described “mash up of fashion and gardens,” featuring Christiano Burnai’s dress that looks like a sprinkler spray.

Find a few go-to companies here to feel gorgeous in the dirt.

MADCAPZ

This hat specialist leads the headgear bonanza with their remakes of the ubiquitous baseball gardening cap. These hats are a first for women in dozens of styles ranging from Polka Dot Pink to All AFlutter (butterflies). They run $23 online.

FOXGLOVES

The company's Elle line of designer gardening gloves is as suitable for soil scratching as a night at the opera. They are long style with a water resistant sport fabric of Supplex nylon and Lycra, soft as a baby's you know what. Big plus: SPF-50 rating protects against harmful UV rays as you pull dandelions, $24.

GARDEN GIRL

Start with rose-printed gardening pants with knee-pad inserts, loose-fit pockets front and back and stretch panels. Grow an ensemble with the matching pleated vest, fleece jacket, Coolmax garden socks and a matching sun parasol. Less than $300 from Garden Girl up the street in Mantua. Add matching shorts for hot days but dirty knees at $69.99.

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AND THE CLASSICS

If being haute is too hot for you, rely on that old reliable, denim-bib overalls, but take note. You no longer have to wear dad’s. The new ones actually fit women in their sizes. Enjoy a little Spandex in places no man would wear. Look for triple-stitched seams and decidedly non-feminine brass fasteners, by Dickies and Carhartt, at $39 to $65.

DON’T FORGET THE HARVEST

When it’s pickin’ and eatin’ time, Patagonia celebrates with its Green Gardens Wrap Top in cotton and Tecel Lyocell. This screams backyard party and “eating everything you toiled to create and sharing it with friends.” The half-length sleeves “keep away the early fall chill as it creeps into your garden space.” The plunging V-neck, not so much, $59.